Rob Huff is worried that the points he missed out on in the opening races of the World Touring Car Championship season in Morocco might prove to be ‘very critical’ in the title fight later in the season.
Brit Huff’s weekend failed to get off to the ideal start when his car failed scrutineering on Friday night due to a seatbelt issue, with the C-Elysée not featuring the latest specification of safety belts.
Although someone was able to bring the correct belts from the UK to Morocco overnight, it meant that Huff had to sit out first practice until the correct parts could be fitted.
After qualifying in fourth, having had less time than his rivals to get up to speed, Huff then made contact with the Honda of Ryo Michigami in the Opening Race, breaking his power steering and forcing him into retirement.
A determined drive from near the back of the grid for the Main Race, where he was demoted to after the repairs between the races took longer than the allocated 15-minutes, saw Huff finish in ninth and secure valuable points in the championship fight.
The weekend ended up ultimately being a disappointment for Huff though, as he leaves Marrakech with just four points to his name.
“We were on the back foot straight away after missing the first free practice at the first event of the year,” explained Huff. “We couldn’t do any practice starts, and that hindered us when we got to the race, and I was out of position when I was fighting the Honda of Ryo Michigami.
“I saw a gap and went for it, but he just turned in on me and that broke my steering rack. The boys did an amazing job to get me back out for Race 2. We scored points, and that’s the important thing. When I lost the championship in 2011, I lost it by three points. We scored four points this weekend, and they might become very critical.”
Huff remains positive about the future, despite his first weekend back with the Münnich Motorsport team being a trying one.
“We’re now going to Monza and then Budapest, both where we were very good in testing, and then on to the Nürburgring, which is one of my favourite tracks, so I’m still very positive.
“I’m still more excited about this year than I’ve ever been. Even though we’ve had a bad weekend, this is the worst track for the Citroën on the calendar, so if we were going to get our worst weekend out of the way, it’s best to do it here.
“The good thing is no one’s exactly run away with it today either; hopefully we’ve just got our bad luck out of the way early.
“I also have to thank Sabelt UK and Steve Bennett, as without their help we probably wouldn’t have been on track this weekend. We went through so many people on Friday to help us, and then it clicked in my head that Nicky Grist does all this stuff and I gave him a call, he put me in touch with Steve, and it’s all worked out, but it was still a huge distraction for us.”